Random problems on PowerMac G5 - is Retrospect 100% compatible with the G5 CPU?

[Arroz]

Hi!

 

Our backup machine was upgraded from a really old G4 450 Mhz to a more powerful Powermac G5 Dual 2 Ghz. I run all the tests I could on the machine, including Apple hardware tests, bad blocks (the drive had 3, so it was put away and replaced), etc. The machine works 24/7, and it's also a test WebObjects/web server, that works flawlessly. No crashes so far, so I assume all the hardware is in pristine condition. The OS is 10.4.10.

 

I installed the most recent Retrospect version on it, and moved the old settings and file backup sets to the new machine.

 

I'm having big problems with a specific client machine (namely, my powerbook). Sometimes it does backup, sometimes retrospect stops backing it up with some "Internal consistency check" error, sometimes it scans all the drive, but stops before copying the actual files with some kind of "couldn't match, checksum error", sometines gives an error in some "platform_dependent.h" file or something close to that, and sometimes Retrospect simply crashes (the report shows BAD ADDRESS errors).

 

I already tried to throw away all the Retrospect settings and backup sets, and I installed the most recent client on the powerbook, and repaired it's file system (it had some minor errors). After doing this, it worked for some days, but it's crashing again.

 

The obvious change was the hardware, but I really don't believe I have an hardware problem, as everything else works perfectly on this machine. And I mean everything, like WebObjects apps, web servers, PostgreSQL, etc, running 24/7. I manage about 30 Macs at work, and of course, I have some at home, so I have some experiencie with hardware problems. This is NOT a hardware problem, it's too localized and too reproductible to be a hardware problem.

 

So... is this a know problem? Does Retrospect really works well on a G5? I have received reports of people with identical problems when moving from G4s to G5s...

 

Yours

 

Miguel Arroz

 

PS: Sorry for not knowing the exact messages, but I suppose they are close enough for EMC engineers to understand them.

[Arroz]

Hi!

 

Sorry, I forgot: the machine is a PowerMac G5 dual 2 Ghz (dual CPU, not dual-core) with 2.5 GB of RAM. It has two hard drives (no bad blocks), a boot drive with 120 GB and a backup drive with 500 GB. Backups are being done for the 500 GB drive as file backup sets.

 

Yours

 

Miguel Arroz

[rhwalker]

Quote:

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I installed the most recent Retrospect version on it

 

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And what version would that be? Not trying to be difficult here, but these posts persist for a long time, and our attempts to help you are not just for you, but for others that might be having the same problems. Without version information, any help we provide is only speculative and is useless to others who might have a different version.

 

Please provide version of Retrospect and the RDU (Retrospect Driver Update) version. Both are given in the Retrospect log every time the program launches.

 

FYI, Retrospect Workgroup 6.1.126 with RDU 6.1.11.101 works on our Xserve G5. Not perfect, but it works. There are some problems, but you haven't mentioned any of those problems.

 

Quote:

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Sorry for not knowing the exact messages, but I suppose they are close enough for EMC engineers to understand them.

 

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These forums are user-to-user support. If you want our help, please provide the error messages. If you want support from EMC engineers, here is how you contact them:

Contact EMC support

 

Russ

[Arroz]

Hi!

 

First, I'm sorry for the delay. I had to run some more hardware checks, and it takes time.

 

The version is 6.1.126 for Retrospect, and 6.1.11.101 for the Driver.

 

Anyway, the problem was, after all, an hardware problem: bad memory. I did not suspect it because:

 

1) The machine was working perfectly;

2) I run Apple Hardware Test when I got the machine (two weeks ago), using the Extended Test, and everything was fine (or looked like it);

3) Nothing else in the system was failing.

 

I started to suspect there was a problem when I did duplicates of big files (>10 GB) and the duplicate had a different md5 chedcksum than the original. Then, I downloaded memtest for OS X and booted in single user mode. memtest detected errors. I did some workarround to identify the damaged memory module, and I finally found it. Since I removed it from the machine, Retrospect is behaving just fine.

 

Yours

 

Miguel Arroz